;-)
ROAD TRIP!
Let's see, back on August 13 he filed from Fayetteville, N.C. After that it was -
Aug. 15 At Sea with the Inshore Patrol
Aug. 19 Leesville. La.
Aug. 21 Temple, Texas
Aug. 25 Palm Springs, Calif.
Aug. 27-Sept. 4 San Francisco
That was the last we heard from HWB. Of course, the index by author is complete through September 30 in case you want to peek into the future.
I don’t know where Baldwin is, but his substitute, Parker, just wrote an absolutely brilliant piece analyzing the importance of Stalingrad.
Some things he got right:
The Soviet threats to the German flanks at Voronezh and Kletskaya are very real, as we will see in a few months. And he is correct that the Soviets will have to wait until winter to capitalize on them.
The economic losses to the USSR, and the potential losses if the Germans seize and hold Stalingrad, are significant. The USSR war economy would be in quite a pinch if the Germans can interdict the flow of oil from the Caucasus. Holding Stalingrad permits them to do just that. Even though the map attached identifies a rail line from Astrakhan to Saratov that bypasses Stalingrad, shipping oil by rail is not as effective as shipping by river barge, and the Germans can interdict that rail line with an air campaign. I always thought that the Germans did not have to seize the Caucasian oil so much as they had to deny it to the Soviets. Holding Stalingrad would accomplish that.
Parker did not specifically quote Order 227 “Not One Step Back” (I’m not sure it has been made public to the west; I’ll have to check Wertz’ “Russia at War.”) But it’s been made pretty clear to the Soviet people and the western correspondents that the Soviet leadership realizes that they simply cannot retreat any more. Until now, they could trade space for time, but they’ve just about run out of valuable space to give up.
On the other hand, Parker underestimates the Soviet powers of continued resistance. The relocation of factories to the east has pretty much been completed and the Soviet war machine is getting cranked up. They are turning out tanks at a rate of about 2000 per month now. They still have a very large field army and are replacing losses much better than the Germans. The Soviets’ Rzhev-Sychevka Operation from August makes it pretty clear that their forces in the central sector of the front are quite potent.
In other words, it ain’t over yet, and the Soviets are not in as crucial spot as they are letting on. Parker is relaying the impression he’s getting that they are.
More on my strategic Stalingrad thoughts later; I do go back and forth on a couple issues as to whether the Germans could have held their front along the Don in November, and if they had held that front through the Spring of 1943, would it have crippled the USSR war effort?